Lobby group to build campaign against uranium mining

Environmental lobby group Friends of the Earth says it will ramp up protests against uranium mining.

The group plans to travel to far western New South Wales and to pastoral holdings surrounding uranium prospects to talk to landholders about their concerns.

Spokesman Peter Burdon says uranium mines pose a threat to aquifers, and legislation is needed to change a legal loophole which allows companies to mine, without public consultation or environmental assessment.

"At the end of the year, or the beginning of next year, we are heading up to the area to talk to pastoralists, to talk to local people and Broken Hill, including traditional owners, and see what concerns are up there already, but at the moment we're ... building that campaign," he said.